Dear Lainey Rose,
You officially turned two months old today! What fun we have had this month with you! We've celebrated my 28th birthday, Mother's Day, and your Grandpa Dal Ponte's birthday. So many firsts for you :)
Here’s what you are up to this month:
You’ve decided that the car seat is just not
your thing. You don’t like to nap in
your car seat, and you don’t like to ride it in. Period. In the
last few days, though, you’ve thrown us a few bones and done better. I’ve glanced back at you in the mirror and
seen you looking out the window contentedly…so maybe we’re on the upswing with
this one! J
Your newborn cry is all but gone. It makes me a little bit sad that we’ve moved
past that, because it just means that
that first phase of your life is coming to a close. It sure does go by fast.
You love
your bouncy seat and your play gym! Your
play gym has lights and sounds that absolutely mesmerize you, and you love to
talk and smile up at them during play time.
You are so
smiley, little love! Your smiles are big
and bright and absolutely melt this mama’s heart. You have a dimple on your left cheek that I cannot.stop.staring at because it is just the most precious thing ever. I’ve never met a baby with a smile as
beautiful as yours. You literally smile
with your whole face—your smiles are wide open and your eyes light up and sparkle.
Did I mention that it melts my heart? J
The second month of your life has brought us an
explosion of baby coos! There is nothing
I love more than when you lock eyes with me, give me the biggest, brightest
smile and then start talking to me with those sweet baby coos. You are so very expressive with your
voice! I’ll talk to you and you’ll talk
back. You make me feel like the most
important person in the world, and those moments with you are some of my very
favorite. I’ll treasure them my whole
life through. I just love you more than
words can say.
We’ve been out and about a bit more this month,
and you truly do SO well. You love to
look out and observe everything around you, and you hardly ever fuss. You’re content to just be held and look around. You make it so easy.
You’re still a bit of a peanut because of your
severe reflux. We were at the doctor a lot this month trying to get that
under control. Baby girl, you still spit
up more than I even knew was possible.
We’ve switched your reflux meds a few times, cut soy and dairy out from
my diet, given you probiotics, and even taken you in for an abdominal
ultrasound (to make sure your tummy was formed correctly) to see if we could
help you out. Nothing made a huge impact, but everything combined seems to have
helped a bit. Your doctor just told us that the plan is to manage it as best we
can until you grow out of it…so that’s exactly what we are doing!
Because of your reflux, weight gain has been hard for you. You had to go in for weight checks about every third day until you were 6 weeks old. You consistently gain about ½ an ounce a day, which is about half of what your doctor would like to see you gain. But, because you’re consistent, you seem to have found a growth curve and have done well sticking to it! As long as that continues, we’re happy to let you grow at your own pace.
At your two month check-up, you weighed in at
11.1 pounds and were just shy of 25 inches.
That puts you in the upper 90th percentile for length and
just about the 50th for weight. You are our long and lean little
princess!
Because of how long you are, you fit very nicely into 6 month clothes. Your 3 month clothes are all too short and I’m not able to button them! It’s funny to me that you can be so little, and still wear clothes two sizes bigger than you actually are!
Daddy and I dedicated you and Blake at our
church on Mother’s Day. That was a very special day for our family, and a very special day for daddy and I. We stood before our church family and made a
promise to do our best to raise you up into a woman who knows and loves
God. We promised to be an example for
you, in words and deeds, of the great Love of the Father. Truly, little one, there is no greater gift than daddy and I can
give you in this life. It has been, and
continues to be, our greatest prayer. That
you will grow into a woman who loves the Lord with all her heart, and all her
soul, and all her mind. You were created
to do great things. We aren’t perfect people,
and God has given us these roles in your life for a very specific purpose..and it is our deepest desire to be faithful to
that.
Your big brother continues to be your biggest
fan! He LOVES you. He loves to climb up on the couch, pat his
knees, and proclaim “SIT! Lainey, sit!” until I put you down next to him. He is
SO serious when you are sitting with him. He is so still, so aware of the fact that his baby sister
is so near to him. He is so very gentle
and careful with you, and it melts my heart.
When you cry, he looks up at me with big, sorrowful eyes and says, “Lainey sad?” He just adores you. The relationship the two of you are building
now is so precious to me, and will be
one of the most important relationships of your entire life. Trust
me on this one, baby girl. Your
Uncle Tony is one of my most treasured friends.
I went back to work teaching kindergarten
part-time this month. You and your
brother spend four hours each morning with your Grandma. You have done SO well! We are so blessed and so thankful that you
have such a wonderful grandma who is
able and willing to watch you and your brother.
I’m always so excited to come pick you up at noon!
You are sleeping so well! We start bedtime at about 7:30 every night, and you’re generally in bed by 8. You still put yourself to sleep, which we know is incredible, and sleep until about 3AM. I feed you in our room and you’re usually back in bed, sleeping, about half an hour later.
During the day, you take 2-3 naps. Usually one from about 7-9,then again from
10:30-noon, and one last afternoon nap at the same time as your brother—around 1:30-
or so. Naps vary from day to day in how
successful we are. You always take them
very well, as in you will very happily stay in your crib and entertain yourself
for the full 1.5 hours, but you don’t always sleep. On those days, you’re
a bit crankier come bedtime J But we are so very thankful that you are so
easygoing and happy!
You ROLLED OVER from your tummy to your back
twice this month! How crazy is that?! It
happened twice—both on the same night—when you were 6 weeks old. You haven’t done it since, but to see you
actually roll over totally floored
me. Your big brother didn’t even attempt
that until he was almost 6 months!!
Little Lainey Rose, we have loved
this month with you in our lives! You
fill a void in our family that we didn’t know existed until you arrived. Now that you’re here, we cannot imagine what
life was like before you. You are our
treasure. God has blessed our family so
tremendously, and we try every day to never take that blessing for
granted. You are perfect, and so very
loved. Do I tell you that enough? When
you lock eyes with me, there is incredible recognition reflected back at me
from those baby blues. You know me. I find that so incredible. We’re connected in such a tangible way, and
that realization still takes my breath away. No one else on this earth gets to
call you their daughter, and I am the blessed woman who you will one day call mama.
I can’t wait for the next moment with you, baby girl. Here’s to a lifetime of them.
Love forever and always,
Your Mama
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